Getting Ready to Coronate Hashem as King
and be Written and Sealed for a Good Sweet Year!

By Rabbi Shimon Raichik

Every year before Rosh Hashana there is a custom to write a letter called a “Pan” (an acronym for the words Pidyon Nefesh) to the Rebbe. We write our name and our mother’s name and we ask the Rebbe to awaken mercy for us on high. This is similar to the custom found in Shulchan Aruch to go to kivrei Tzaddikim to ask for their assistance before Rosh Hashana.

The first time I wrote a Pan to the Rebbe was when I was 13 ½ years old. I sat with my father upstairs in the small shul in 770. I wasn’t exactly sure what to do so my father helped me start writing the Pan. He had me write three things to ask the Rebbe for help in accomplishing. 1. To be mekabel, to accept the yoke of Hashem’s Kingship. 2. To become aroused with a true spirit of teshuvah. 3. To have a kesiva v’chasima tova l’shana tovah u’meshuka. That was it, just those requests and nothing more, other than to sign my name.

Later on when I started learning chassidus I realized that these three requests encompass the entire Rosh Hashana.

The entire davening in the machzor has one theme with a clear focus; the coronation of Hashem as King over the entire world in general and us in particular. The theme of receiving Hashem as King is the purpose of the pasukim of Malchios, Zichronos and Shofros.

The goal is to be able to be a servant of Hashem and be ready to do whatever He needs. It doesn’t just mean to do one thing here and another there rather to fully accept the responsibility of the yoke of His kingship in everything we do, 24/7 with great simcha. This is reflected in the all the Tefillos of Rosh Hashana.

In order to get into this avodah of accepting Hashem’s Kingship properly we need to first do teshuva. In order to awaken our neshama to do teshuva, to desire to be truly close to Hashem and to feel Elokus, we need the avodah of the Shofar. This is the crying out of the neshama, calling Father Father!, I am returning to You. I want to be close to You, You are our King.

Then we ask for the good outcome that we can see, that we should be written and sealed in the physical as well as the spiritual for a shana tovah u’mesukah. We pray not only that Hashem should bless us with our physical needs but that it should be sweet as well. What does this mean? Everything that comes from Hashem is already good; no evil comes from above. What a sweet year means is that we should experience that good, that it should also be good and sweet from our perspective as well. I later realized that these three lines that my father taught me in writing the Pan encompass the entire avodah and the tefillos of Rosh Hashana.

In the Avinu Malkeinu prayer that we sing on Rosh Hashana we tell Hashem that He is our one and only King. We pray to accept Hashem’s Kingship with the full and complete revelation of Moshiach when Hashem will be accepted as King by everyone over the entire world.

Operation Protective Edge: Join hundreds in uniting for the protection of Eretz Yisroel and Jews worldwide by encouraging another Jew to put up a mezuzah in their home or office for just $5. Click here for more info.

N’shei Chabad of Los Angeles has launched 'Operation Shabbat Dome'- Please take two tea lights put them in a bag and distribute to all Jewish women and girls before Shabbos. For more info click here.

Motzei Shabbos: Special even in Maayan Yisroel. For more info click here.

Mr. & Mrs. Milton Goodman for the yahrtzeit of Mr. Milton Goodman’s father Reb Yisroel ben Reb Zalmen ob"m. May the neshomo have an aliya. Also for the great mirical that Hashem has performed for Mr. Goodman on Sep 11 2001. May Hashem continue to shower him and the entire community with kol tuv sela.

Tzvi Burston in honor of his birthday. May he have a shnas hatzlocho begashmiyus ubruchniyus.

Mr. & Mrs. Reuvein & Caplan in honor of Razel bas Hanna. May they and the entire community be blessed with kol tuv se’ela.

Rabbi & Mrs. Mendel Dubinsky for the yahrtzeit of their son Reb Dovid Yonah ben Reb Menachem Mendel Hokohen ob"m. May the neshomo have an aliya.

Rabbi & Mrs. Leib Lerner in honor of their anniversary. May they have many more happy years together.

Rabbi & Mrs. Heshy Mishulovin in honor of the birth of their daughter Chaya Mushka. May they have much nachas from her and may she grow up to Torah, to Chupa and to Maasim Tovim.

Rabbi & Mrs. Zalmy Fogelman for in honor of a seudas hadoah for their son Yitzchok Dovid. May Hashem continue to shower them and the entire community with kol tuv sela.

Mr. & Mrs. Moshe Vcherashansky in honor of the birth of their daughter Nava. May they have much nachas from her and may she grow up to Torah, to Chupa and to Maasim Tovim.

Mr. & Mrs. Yossi Vcherashansky in honor of the birth of their daughter Bluma Leah. May they have much nachas from her and may she grow up to Torah, to Chupa and to Maasim Tovim.

Mr. & Mrs. Steav Zipp in honor of Mrs. Barbara Zipp’s birthday. May she have a shnas hatzlocho begashmiyus ubruchniyus. Also in honor of their grandson Dovid Moshe Klein’s birthday. May he have a shnas hatzlocho begashmiyus ubruchniyus.

Absorbing Chassidus is not like drinking Milk:
We cannot pick between “whole, half and skim”
By Rabbi Shimon Raichik

This Shabbos is parshas Ki Savo and also Chai Elul the birthdays of the two great luminaries the Baal Shem Tov and the Alter Rebbe. The Rebbe asked what the connection is between the parsha of Ki Savo and the day of Chai Elul. The Previous Rebbe says that the day of Chai Elul brings life into the avodah of Elul.

Chassidus does not come to add to the Torah and mitzvos rather to bring life into the Torah and mitzvos we do. Adding life isn’t like adding a limb to the body rather it makes what’s there more alive; the life and the thing (the Torah and mitvos) are not two separate things but are all part of one thing. It’s not like a machine that you fill up with fuel, it’s a neshama, as we say in the bracha; You return souls into dead bodies. The neshama comes into (like the word savo, to enter in the name Ki Savo) the body and unites with it as one. The same is true for learning chassidus, when we learn chassidus it brings life into our entire being. It’s brings feeling and sensitivity into our performance of Torah and mitzvos. Just as a mikva is only kosher when the entire body is covered by it’s waters with not even one hair outside, so too we want to be completely effected and within the waters of the Torah.

The problem that we face today is that people want to live on both sides of the fence. Some say; it’s no longer the 1850’s and we don’t have a shtetl to live in anymore. We have seen the development of a “modern chassidic” approach, which tries to have it both ways. What happens then is that we aren’t fully in it. We become partial participants depending on how we balance our priorities. If we are half way into the mikva it doesn’t make purity, we have to be completely inside the waters.

One year after the entire Tishrei the Rebbe said that there are people here who haven’t yet arrived. They were physically there the whole time but they weren’t really involved. Where is our life?

We also fool ourselves about where we stand. We participate in this double dance between the modern and the chassidic and then we look back and ask; how did I end up here? There is a story of a chosid businessman who was a chosid of the Rebbe Maharash. When he would visit the Rebbe he wore a kapote, and when he was among his fellow business associates he wore business attire. At some point the basic contradiction in his behavior bothered him so much that he decided to always dress either one way of the other. The next time he visited the Rebbe he wore his business attire. Later on in yechidus the Rebbe expressed his disappointment. The chosid said; you knew already, why are you upset now? The Rebbe replied; until now I thought that you were fooling the world that you were like Yaakov wearing the clothes of Eisav. Now I see that it’s the opposite.

When we fully participate and put ourselves entirely into serving Hashem with simcha and a good heart then we are in the land. The word land also means our will, our desire. This is the meaning of Ki Savo coming into the land. When a chosid lives with emunah in general and uses his Chabad, his intellect in all the details then he lives entirely connected. This is the message of Chai Elul. And then we go in, inherit, and settle the land today together with Moshiach.

Operation Protective Edge: Join hundreds in uniting for the protection of Eretz Yisroel and Jews worldwide by encouraging another Jew to put up a mezuzah in their home or office for just $5. Click here for more info.

N’shei Chabad of Los Angeles has launched 'Operation Shabbat Dome'- Please take two tea lights put them in a bag and distribute to all Jewish women and girls before Shabbos. For more info click here.

Please be aware that during this time of the year Candle Lighting time changes drastically from week to week, and changes earlier - as much as between 7 - 10 minutes a week.

Shabbos Candle Lighting: 6:55

Chassidus for Early Minyan with Rabbi Zalman Friedman: 8:45 am

Shiur Chassidus by Rabbi Raichik: 9:00 am

Last Time To Read Shema: 9:40 am

Early Minyan Shacharis: 9:30 am

Shacharis: 10:00 am

This Shabbos we have the honor of hosting Rabbi Boruch Leshes - Rov of anash in Monsey NY. He will iy”h be saying the derosho at the early minyan and also be leading the farbrengen at the main minyan - his topic will be “The journey of Elul Tishrei from Kol Torah to Kfar Chabad & 770”.

Mr. & Mrs. David Kaufman in honor of their anniversary. May they have many more happy years together.
Also for the yahrtzeit of Mrs. Marci Kaufman’s mother Chaya Leah bas Reb Yom Tov ob"m. May the neshomo have an aliya.

Rabbi & Mrs. Levi Lesches in honor of the birth of their daughter Chana Temima. May they have much nachas from her and may she grow up to Torah, to Chupa and to Maasim Tovim.

This week’s parsha, Ki Tzetzei begins by speaking about going to war. The parsha begins: When you go out to war on your enemies, the L-rd your G-d shall deliver them into your hands, and you shall capture from them captives.

Rashi explains that the verse here is referring to a non-obligatory war. In reference to an obligatory war of conquering the Land of Israel, the Torah would not stress, "and you seize their captives," because it has already said: "You may not allow any soul to live". Chassidus explains that a non-obligatory war for each individual refers to conquering all of our mundane activities and using them in the service of Hashem. On a practical level this refers to our commitment to eat, to speak and dress like a Jew. Every detail of life is permeated with sanctity and directed toward fulfilling our purpose of making this world a dwelling place for Hashem.

The Chabad approach toward integrating the life of a Jew, the Torah and mitzvos with the ways of the world and the worldly culture that surrounds us has been clear and resounding; to conquer! This unequivocal credo has successfully guided chassidim for generations and is the theme of this weeks parsha.

As we take a look around us we can see how relevant and vital this message is today. Unfortunately, I heard about a recent meeting of Modern Orthodox Rabbis where they openly admitted that their approach of mixing modernity with Torah had failed. They look around and now realize that many of the next generation do not understand the core message of Judaism. The reason for this is plain and clear. They have become buried by the messages of modern culture and liken their faith to those of others. We have Shabbos, and they Sunday etc. This lack of discernment has many serious implications. The key is to realize that we are here to conquer and not to get too comfortable. It’s not enough just to convince ourselves that we know to interact with the world well enough that we can enjoy the culture without getting too caught up. The subtle messaging of Western cultures passivity and phony equalities are everywhere and you have no control over the fact that these messages are NOT lost on our youth. If we leave this unchecked then we too could be sitting and meeting and asking questions as our friends are in the Modern camp. We don’t need to keep ignoring this problem until we are addressing our youth in our own communities to ask ourselves: What were we thinking?! We need to have a little chutzpa right now and take this problem on as a non-obligatory war.

Back in the 1960’s and 1970’s Chabad began 'Encounter with Chabad' weekends on college campuses. Often, they would be promoted with speakers with academic credentials in the forefront. Graduates of Harvard and Yale, Professors and Doctors were in the headlines and in the advertisements. Amongst all of the prestigious names were also Rabbis, chassidim of the Rebbe that attended these encounters. Later on as the success of the Encounter weekends materialized many young people began to return to Judaism and became the Baal Teshuva movement we see today. When I was in Florida I met Dr. Joel Sinski who was involved in making these encounter weekends twice a year at the University of Maryland. Later on some of the students that were inspired would make trips to Crown Heights for Shabbos. Dr. Sinski said that one thing inspired them the most to change their entire lives and to return to Judaism was the warmth of the chassidic home. It wasn’t the philosophical or scientific answers to their questions they heard at the encounter weekends that did the job. Those answers were helpful to removing their opposition but not enough to inspire the change. It was the warmth and vitality in the home and way they lived and spoke their Judaism and spoke to each other. The special relationship that they maintained through the Shabbos, the davening the learning the fabrengens and the meticulous observance of mitzvos is what was most attractive to them. This is what they wanted for have for their lives and for the lives of their children; a living and vibrant Judaism. This is something that Western culture cannot and does not provide.

Our passion for a complete package, a complete connection to Hashem to reveal niflinu, the wonder of that connection is contagious; and our children are watching, they pick up the message! It’s not about one little detail of a minhag, or staying away from one little influence, it’s about the care and the passion of each and every little thing; it’s the organic connection to all the details and how it impacts our relation to Hashem that makes all the difference. This is the non-obligatory war that we all wage in our homes and in our lives and the stakes could not be greater.

When we look today on the global scene we can see that a new narrative of nations is taking place. You don’t need to be a big chacham to see that society is in free fall and western passivity is at the center of the problem. Until now many western countries have again and again turned their backs on the reality of global terror. When they weren’t blaming Israel they were yawning and changing channels or turning up their iPods as they relegated our struggle in Eretz Yisroel to two equal warring parties (at best!) that just need to negotiate and compromise. They washed away moral clarity and ethics for western indifference. Now the world is beginning to realize that this is a true clash of civilizations and it’s their bedrooms and living rooms that are at stake. What can we learn from this in this week’s parsha about a non-obligatory war? It is only by being dedicated on conquering our own complacency and being decisive in battle that we will be victorious.

Once we use everything in our homes and in our lives in the service of Hashem, then we are converting the world into a place for Hashem. Our accomplishments bring the revelation of Moshiach and Hashem’s kingdom will shine openly over the entire world.